PFI-TT: Making U.S. Aluminum Extrusion Manufacturers Greener and More Productive Through Tooling and Software Innovations

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project includes reducing industry greenhouse gas emissions and making U.S. aluminum manufacturers more competitive. The benefits of successful implementation include reduced material imports and cheaper, lightweight automotive components leading to quicker deployment of fuel efficient vehicles. This project enhances the scientific understanding of aluminum manufacturing under extreme heat and pressure. This new knowledge enhances the technological understanding of hardware design tools for the aluminum extrusion industry with goals of minimize waste, increasing throughput, and opening new markets for U.S. manufacturers. This project seeks to reduce environmental impacts and costs in the extrusion industry by increasing the efficient use of materials. This technology may save the average U.S. aluminum extrusion manufacturer about $3 million in material costs per year, translating to $396 million for the North American industry and $4.2 billion per year globally. In addition, manufacturers may gain additional revenue from new markets and product lines made possible by the faster production enabled by the technology.This project seeks to increase the competitiveness and environmental sustainability of U.S. aluminum manufacturing. The PFI team has demonstrated a lab-scale technology that reduces extrusion scrap by 25-50%. However, key technical knowledge gaps remain before the technology can be scaled-up. The project objectives are to derive accurate predictive models of cracking in extrusion-processed aluminum alloys. The team will extend their previous work on mechanistic models of aluminum solid-state welding to more complex extrusion case, validated through mechanical testing of real-life samples. The team also seeks to derive algorithms that combine this new knowledge with metal forming, air entrapment, and tool deformation simulations to develop extrusion hardware that reduces the net scrap generated by an anticipated 25-50%. Overcoming these hurdles may transform the technology to a turnkey solution that can be easily adopted by manufacturers. The project will culminate in field-tests under real-life industrial conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.